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Thursday, May 12, 2016

Another Harbinger of Economic Problems

The number of new unemployment claims for the week was released this morning. The number was surprisingly high and actually was the highest of the last fifteen months.  This is especially troubling since there were no special factors influencing the number.  Last week we had a surprising climb and this week we shot up by another 20,000 claims.  Put all this together and it's a warning of a potential recession coming.

Of course, there was no reaction from the White House to these bad figures.  There doesn't have to be.  The number is just a small signal that the economy is turning sour.  One cannot respond to each such signal, particularly when it may not be real.  Still, it is not very comforting for the American people when there is a jump like this in unemployment claims and the president ignores it.  It is even worse when Hillary Clinton tells us that she sees no need to change economic policy if elected.

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